Valentia Island Symposium on Ssubsea Cable Security and Resilience Restoration and Repair: Past, Present and Future
On 22-24 April 2026, the second multi-stakeholder Symposium on Subsea Cable Security and Resilience will be held at Valentia Island's historic Transatlantic Cable Station. Under the umbrella topic "Restoration and Repair: Past, Present and Future", the 2026 Valentia Island Symposium aims to contribute to ongoing discussions at national, regional and international levels on the repair of subsea telecommunications cables.
A robust and reliable subsea cable repair ecosystem is essential to safeguarding the security and resilience of critical undersea infrastructure. Recent policy initiatives-including the EU Joint Communication on strengthening submarine cable security and resilience (21 February 2025) and the New York Statement on Undersea Cable Security and Resilience (26 September 2024)-highlight the central role of repair capabilities, including ships, personnel, depots, and enabling policies, in ensuring effective response. Sustaining uninterrupted connectivity is not only vital for national security but also for broader societal resilience. However, both government and industry have flagged significant challenges within the repair ecosystem that demand urgent attention.
Taking a broad historical lens, the Symposium will focus on the evolution of subsea cable repair throughout history, differentiating between repair operations in peacetime, in crisis and during conflict. It will examine repair as a core element of resilience in global connectivity and how this is reflected in current policy and practice. It will discuss some of the key challenges identified by government and industry and pathways for addressing them.
Importantly, it will also reflect on current market dynamics and structural shifts in the subsea cable sector. Alongside technological and geopolitical developments, it will examine what these structural shifts mean for the future of repair and the repair ecosystem.
A call for presentations for the symposium is currently open until 15th December. More details on the event website.
